This invention relates to a pipe supporting system. More particularly, the invention is directed to a pipe clamping device for piping spaced over a floor of a liquid/solids holding vessel.
Various clamping systems have been employed to hold and support piping which is to extend above and parallel to a ground surface. Illustrative of these pipe anchoring devices is the clamp seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,034, where a hinged pipe clamp extends between a pair of upstanding posts anchored in ground strata, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,106, where a pair of clamp halves are mounted on a pair of driving bolts or where an angled channel extends between two bolts extending into a concrete floor, the channel being grooved to receive the pipe U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,539,783; 3,194,590; 4,063,700; and 4,143,844 show other types of pipe supports, albeit ones hanging down from a beam or roof surfaces, which have a horizontal base portion, a vertical portion, and either a pair of clamp halves or a single U-shaped bolt encompassing the pipe.
The closest prior art known to Applicant is a header guide support sold under the trademark "Sanitaire" by Water Pollution Control Corp. This support includes a single U-shaped member threaded on its vertical legs and bent in a sinuous form in its horizontal reach or base to form an open slot which is mounted over a threaded anchor bolt extending upwardly from a floor surface. A locating plate is passed over the bolt and clamped by a nut over and against the sinuous base of the U-shaped member and a pair of clamp halves utilized to clamp a pipe between the fixedly spaced integral legs of the U-shaped support member A separately sized U-shaped support member is needed for each size of pipe or large spaces between the legs are necessary to accommodate the largest size pipe with a series of pipe clamp halves having various pipe-holding diameters for the largest and smaller diameter pipes. Further mere loosening of the clamped locating plate may permit pivoting of the support base out the open end of the open slot causing a possible pipe-support failure at that point. Still further because the anchor on the Sanitaire device is not directly on the centerline of the support there is a "prying" or bending when there is an upward force on the support.